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Origin Of African Drama Essay

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While tracing the origin of African drama, some say that African drama is develop by European influence. Viewers believe that the origin of African drama is rooted in dramatic ritual and magical practices, dances and songs of African nation, usually practiced in pre-colonized Africa. Based on activities which relate to their tribal social life (culture, beliefs and religion) were completed through conduct. Some of these performances were based on real events while others were imaginative. That is, these performances were said to be practiced due to some community-based activities already fulfilled or to be fulfilled in the future by the community. For instances, if the tribal war heroes wanted to tell their community what had already happened at the battle field with their tribal foes, they had to imitate the real incidents happened at the battle field. Hence, they were extremely careful in imitating exactly what happened. On the other hand, if they wanted to communicate what would happen in a religious ritual where they would request their Gods to increase their harvest or children, they initially had to imitate whatever the outcome they desired to achieve: although, they were imaginative events. Most of these performances were held at open gatherings while sometimes receiving the spectator’s comments …show more content…

Accordingly, imitation, which is considered to be the basics of drama, played a significant role in these African dramatic performances which were a combination of magical rituals, dances, songs and religious beliefs. Native Africans had to play flawlessly as their intention was either to change the undesirable or to maintain the desirable in their lives. African drama may have originated through these dramatic performances. As explained, these African dramatic performances were meant for live audiences to full all community

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